Sri Lanka Cricket announced a schedule for the upcoming white-ball series against India on Thursday, July 11. Sri Lanka will be hosting India in three T20Is starting on July 26 and both teams are expected to announce the squads in the coming days.
India rested the majority of the players from their T20 World Cup 2024 winning squad for the first two T20I games against Zimbabwe while Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube and Yashasvi Jaiswal joined the camp for the last three matches of the series.
However, the BCCI is expected to announce a strong squad for the three T20Is against Sri Lanka. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja announced retirement from the shortest format of the game and Jasprit Bumrah is reportedly expected to be given an extended break.
Hardik Pandya is tipped to lead the 15-member squad with top-ranked batter Suryakumar Yadav and World Cup-winning players Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Siraj coming back to T20I setup. Samson, Rinku, Jaiswal and Khaleel are part of the squad for the Zimbabwe tour and are likely to retain their places in the squad for the Sri Lanka series.
The return of World Cup-winning members will definitely hammer Shivam Dube’s chances in the team after his struggles with both bat and ball in the T20 World Cup. Abhishek Sharma, Washington Sundar and Ruturaj Gaikwad are expected to keep their places after impressive performances on the Zimbabwe tour but the likes of Riyan Parag and Jitesh Sharma are likely to be snubbed for the Sri Lanka series.
India’s probable squad for the T20I series against Sri Lanka
Hardik Pandya (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Khaleel Ahmed.